How to Counter the Most Popular Strategies in Rainbow Six Siege

Rainbow Six Siege is a game of strategy, adaptation, and precision. As players go up the ranks, they will face more and more sophisticated strategies that teams will have been using. One needs to not only understand those strategies but also know how to be able to counter them. Below, we will be taking a closer look at some of the most common strategies you’ll face in Rainbow Six Siege and providing real actionable ways to counter those strategies, ensuring you and your team have a tactical advantage.

Understanding Popular Meta Picks

There are those operators in Rainbow Six Siege who find themselves dominating the meta because of their utility, flexibility, or even sheer firepower. Defenders’ staples include Jäger, Wamai, and Smoke, while attackers frequently use Thatcher, Ace, and Zofia. Countering these popular picks starts with your own operator selection. If you are going up against a Jäger-Wamai setup that neutralizes projectiles, use Flores or zero utility-clearing operators. The same applies when Thatcher is banned, as using Maverick or Kali will help in breaching the reinforced walls without too much cost to team effectiveness. This is how counter-picking manages to keep your team relevant in the meta and the opponents on their toes.

Breaking the Reinforced Wall Strategy

One of the most common strategies of defensive play in Rainbow Six Siege is to reinforce walls around critical objectives. This limits the attackers’ lines of sight and access. These are usually countered by hard breachers like Thermite, Ace, and Hibana, but often defenders will deploy Bandit or Kaid to “trick” the breach and deny utility. Attackers can counter this by using Thatcher or Maverick to destroy or disable the defensive gadgets. This can be replaced with a similar setup involving Zofia or Ash to destroy the defenses and Flores drones to disrupt the Bandit or Kaid when these operators are not available. Timing and coordination with your team will be essential in using a breaching charge successfully.

Navigating Roaming Defenders

Roaming defenders like Vigil, Caveira, and Mozzie are designed to disrupt the advances of attackers through ambushes away from the objective. Countering roamers requires strong communication and diligent drone work. Before advancing into the building, drones can be deployed to help identify and isolate the roamer. Pin them down with callouts to your team, forcing them into more predictable moves. Operators like Jackal and Lion actively have gear to neutralize roamers by tracking their movements, while Nomad or Gridlock could secure flanks and avoid surprise attacks altogether. Playing patiently and clearing roamers before pushing the objective can save your team from really bad ambushes.

Breaking the Turtle Defense

“Turtling” refers to the defenders huddling on-site with reinforced walls, deployable shields, and other gadgets, including the Smoke canisters, Goyo canisters, or Maestro’s Evil Eyes, to build an impassable defense. This strategy strives on time management and forces the attackers to rush late-round and make mistakes. To counter a turtle defense, systematic utility clearing is required. Disable gadgets with Twitch or Flores, destroy deployable shields with Zofia or Ash, and use frag grenades to force defenders out of position. Smokes or flashes that disrupt visibility can create windows of opportunity to push. The key is not rushing but methodically breaking their setup piece by piece.

Spawn Peeking and Early Aggression

Spawn peeking is a ghetto strategy where the defenders make use of the predictable attacker spawns to guarantee a couple of early kills. Counter by use of caution and unpredictability. Once spawning, make use of your drones to scout for potential peeking spots or bait defenders into being discovered. Operators like Glaz with his see-through smoke or shields like that of Montagne can be used to dampen early aggression. Take few to no risks in those first seconds and worry about surviving more than fighting. With time, the defenders will bleed their advantage, and you will start forcing the site.

Neutralizing Vertical Play

Vertical play refers to how attackers or defenders use destructible floors and ceilings to gain map control. Attackers will often use soft breeches like Buck or Sledge to clear defensive utility above their heads while defenders will use C4 or nitro cells to deny any plant attempt from below. Countering vertical play requires map awareness and adaptability. For attackers, make sure to properly drone to find defenders lurking below, and use claymores to counter rotations. For defenders, keeping roamers in less predictable positions and denying the attacker access to certain areas, like hatches, will nullify much of an attacker’s vertically advantageous position.

Exploiting and Countering Siege Bunkering

Bunkering-a more rigid style of turtling-sees defenders heavily reliant on choke points and multiple lines of defense. They can use deployable shields, barbed wire, and operators such as Smoke or Tachanka to slow the attackers. Countering bunkering requires a mix of disruption and coordination. Operators such as Finka can boost health during critical pushes, while operators with smoke grenades can obscure defensive lines of sight. They can also do a two-point staged assault and time their attacks to disorient defenders and open gaps in their setup.

Handling Plant Denial Tactics

Plant denial is when the defenders prevent attackers from planting the objective in the last seconds of a round. The most common gadgets used for plant denial are Smoke canisters, C4, Maestro cameras, and Echo drones. The best counter for plant denial is addressing the early-round operator picks. Concentrate on taking down operators such as Smoke or Echo before attempting to plant. If that’s not possible, utility such as concussions from Zofia or EMPs from Thatcher can temporarily disable plant denial gadgets and allow attackers to get the defuser down.

Countering Rush Tactics

Rush tactics are utilized by attackers to overwhelm defenders with pure speed and aggression. These rushes typically occur within the early seconds of a round. Defenders can counter these rushes with operators like Kapkan, who can set up explosive traps, or Lesion, whose mines slow attackers down. Be prepared, upon suspicion of a rush, with utility in high-traffic areas such as doorways and chokes. Early communication and sound awareness are crucial so as not to get yourselves caught off guard by the attacking team. Similarly, an attacking team against an expected defensive rush can disrupt and retake control with flashes and smokes.

Teamwork and Communication

No matter the strategies you’re countering, teamwork and communication remain the backbone of success in Rainbow Six Siege. Share intel gathered through drones and sound cues, call out enemy positions, and synchronize utility usage. A disjointed team, no matter how skilled, will struggle to counter well-coordinated strategies. But a team that can communicate through any circumstance can change the situation and win the fight. Build the chemistry and trust with your teammates first before outplaying the enemies who only rely on individual skill. Sometimes good teammates are hard to find and Rainbow 6 Siege cheats can help with that issue and the other issues listed before.

Rainbow Six Siege is a mental game as much as it is tactical. The strategies discussed here represent only a fraction of the game approaches that players use. Adaptation is the key to countering any of the strategies: be unpredictable, analyze your opponent’s tendencies, and change your game accordingly. Whether aggressive roams, bunker setups, or plant denial tactics, being able to adapt on the fly makes great teams distinguishable from good ones. By mastering counters to popular strategies, you’ll ensure your team stays competitive and maintains the upper hand in every match.

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About Simon Plumbe 1103 Articles
Husband, father and lifelong geek. Originally from the West Midlands, now spending my days in South Wales with my family and a house full of animals. Passionate about video games, especially retro gaming, the Commodore 64 and PlayStation Vita. Love pro wrestling, sci-fi and I'm an animal lover and vegetarian. Enjoyed this and my other articles? Why not buy me a coffee: http://ko-fi.com/simonplumbe